Creighton's 1835 Parliamentary Map of Hertfordshire

Creighton's Parliamentary
Map of Hertfordshire

Maps

This map shows the arrangements for electing Members ofParliament after the 1832 Reform Act.

A Major New Publication about the Grand Junction Canal

Books

The Grand Junction Canal

The book "The Grand Junction Canal" by Ian Pettigrew and Wendy Austin has just appeared - and is a very significant document recording the history of the canal (now normally referred to as the Grand Union Canal). In addition to a detailed history of the canal it contains many old photographs, maps, and extracts from original documents and newspaper articles - together with references and footnotes. I have created my normal reference page, to help people to discover the book - but will not be writing a detailed review at the present time - because the book (340 packed pages of A4 text) is available online - and you can see what a valuable reference work it is by looking at it yourself.

Canals

When I find time to complete the canal pages on this web site, and to post even more modern photographs of the Canal and its branches in within 10 miles or so of Tring, I am sure I will be including many references to this work.

Things aren't always what the census appears to be telling you

Help Desk

Railways

Michael Meredith was one of the railway works employed in at Tring railway station at the time of the 1851 census, and a few years ago Carlene asked for more information about him and revealed that he had emigrated to New Zealand and had been murdered in 1863 - their murder being a tipping point in one of the Maori Wars. I provided more information, from the 1841 census and noticed that Michael's eldest daughter had not been at home in 1851 and I could not find her anywhere in the 1851 census.

A former Horse Guard was a Watford publican circa 1899-1912

Help Desk

Vivian's query about Alexander Lorimer shows that a private in the Royal Horse Guards barracks, near Buckingham Palace, in 1881 later took on the licence of the Red Lion in Watford before moving to The Dog in Cassio Hamlet, Watford.

Watford

A good example of unscrambling census returns and other records. For full details see LORIMER, A Watford publican, 1899-1912

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego at Tring 200 years ago

Help Desk

Family Events

Two hundred years ago Tring was a hot-bed of non-conformity, which has the unfortunate effect that there are no birth or baptism records for many children. However most people still got married at the parish church before 1837 and were buried in the churchyard - as most chapels did not have their own burial grounds. I was looking for a suitable test problem to try out the Hertfordshire registers that are now available on FindMyPast and a comment by Melvyn Barber gave me just what I was looking for.

Tring

There is no doubt that his great great great grandfather, Thomas Barber, was born in Tring around 1828, but  he was born before civil registration (1837) and there is no surviving evidence of his parents. Looking at the marriage records for Tring - and the early census returns revealed an interesting family. It is not clear who the couple were but they named their sons Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, after the three people that God is said to have saved from the fiery furnace. The matter is complicated by the fact that Thomas's father, Meshach died before the 1841 census and his wife remarried, but information from post-1837 marriages name the father, and a single "emergency" baptism of a new-born child who died within days, provided further evidence.  For the full story see BARBER, Tring, early 19th century.

Who was Karaktus, of Crown Publishing Co, of St Albans?

Karaktus, Card No 27, Crown Publishing Co, St Albans, 1909

Post Cards

St Albans

My great grandfather, Jacob Reynolds, was a major milk producer in the St Albans area and employed a number of delivery milkmen who went round the city supplying milk at the door. I was amused to see the following post card - especially when I discovered that it had been published in St Albans. So I decided to investigate and found a whole series of comic post cards by Karaktus from 1908-1909. I also came across a mystery - the company that published it appears to have only existed for a couple of years - and no-one knows who Karaktus was. See KARAKTUS, Crown Publishing Ltd, St Albans, 1908/9 for many more examples of his work - and some other comic post cards published by Crown Publishing. And please tell me if you have any information that could help to identify him.

Rural Relaxation; Snipe at College Lake

The lack of any "Rural Relaxation" reports is simply that, while I have been continuing my walks - and taking photographs - I have not got round to posting any pictures. I am still visiting the College Lake Nature Reserve at least once a week, often when I have been spending too long at the keyboard and need fresh air, some exercise - and a cup of coffee! Today's picture of a snipe was taken from the octagon hide this afternoon.

Shooting Match on Sandridge Rifle Range in 1907

from Herts Advertiser, Sept 1907

Old News

I have just posted a lengthy news item reporting on a shooting match between some South African (Boer) War veterans and the St Albans Rifle and Revolver Club. It was held on the comparatively newly built Sandridge Rifle Range - which has earlier been discussed at length under the title Chalk Hill Rifle Range,  Sandridge, First World War. The news article names the teams - and the individual scores at 200, 500 and 600 yards.

The "Watford Loco" Football Club, 1904-5

Football

Watford Loco

I keep on finding early post cards of "unknown" football teams - in the hope that some of you might be able to add names to the faces. This one appeared on ebay, team unknown, but posted at Abbot Langley. In fact I have identified the team as the Watford Loco Football Club - for full details of what I found see Watford Loco Football Club 1904-05

If you can add information on the club - and the footballers in the picture, let me know.

February activity and plans for March

Due to other activities I spent less time on this site than I did in January - with social activities such as taking our Granddaughter to the Barnes Wetland Centre, and giving two talks to different groups of the Tring U3A. I have also been active on my other blog - Trapped by the Box - where I have posted a copy of the slides of my talk "How evolution made us the way we are." More activities are planned - some in connection with my 75th birthday, and I am planning for my appearance at the Herts Family History Society Open Day on 23rd March -  I may see some of you there! All this means that postings will probably be at a similar level to February, and there may be delays in replying to messages (there is already a backlog waiting for action).

Having said that I did make 22 posts (compared with 53 in January). It is not surprising that the number of page views was down, but when you allow for the fact that February only had 28 days the site was as active as in November and December.